Early documents in Russia record this surname with a variety of spellings, but modern generations in the United States use the spelling of Oehlschlaeger.
Konrad Wohlschleger [sic], a farmer, his wife Anna, and children (Maria, age 17¼; Johann, age 13; Peter, age 10¼; Martin age 4) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 9 June 1766 aboard a ship named Die Perle under the command of Skipper Gerhardt Hermann Thomsen.
Konrad Wohlschleier [sic] and his family settled in the Volga German colony of Anton. His children (Maria Elisabeth, age 17; Johann Peter, age 10) are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 63 along with a note that they are living with Pastor Johann Eckel.
The 1798 census of Anton records daughter Maria Elisabeth in Household No. An16. The 1798 census of Stahl am Tarlyk records the widow and daughters of Peter in Household No. St10.
Peter Ölschläger is recorded on the 1798 census of Straub in Household No. Sr52 along with a note that he is working in Kukkus.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Konrad Wohlschleger [sic] came from the German region of Zweibrücken. The 1767 census records that the Wohlschläger [sic] family came from the German village of Zweibrücken in the Kurpfalz region.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 29.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 159.
- Mai, Brent Alan. 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999): Sr52, St10.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 69.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #1004.
Brent Mai